Welcome to my world

In a champagne and canapé world it is so easy to lose sight of what is important in life. But there are a couple of markers that are always guaranteed to bring me back down to earth, to see things clearly and to put things massively into perspective.

Parties and profile are great and we all live for fun and laughter, but family and friends are absolutely vital to my existence.

Today, I have no parties to report on and no celebrity gossip – but, as this is a blog, and supposed to be from my heart - welcome to my private world:

I have had an email from my little brother, well he is not so much a baby any more, he is in his 30’s (but hey … still my baby brother) – he is currently serving in Afghanistan (God I worry about him so much) – He is a medic and regardless of my opinion of our troops being deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq… he is proud to serve his country and look after our troops in a war zone.

He is due home in a couple of weeks for a bit of R&R (rest and recuperation) - and I will get to see him for just a couple of days before he joins his wonderful girlfriend Marietta on holiday. I would pass on any party invitation that comes along when he is home, just to share a glass of wine and a meal and have a good catch up. Ian is a lovely guy, a lovely brother and a total credit to our parents…. They would be so proud of him!

Another thing guaranteed to make me realise what is important in life is my little newphew. Aaron is only 9 months old, my baby brothers son – whenever I see him he simply lights up my world – he is the cutest little thing and has the biggest personality. Goodness knows where he gets that from! I feel like a very lucky aunty to have him in my world!

Tonight… was a very special one for me – one of my oldest and most lovely friends Linda (nee McEllwee) is home from Italy (she married Lello an Italian doctor over 20 years ago and moved to live in Italy), but we have always kept in touch. It is a strange one, I can not hear from Linda for ages, but when I see her or speak to her it is as if we spoke only yesterday. How lovely is that, the result of a true and lasting friendship.

Tonight I cooked dinner (god bless M&S!) for Linda, her adorable sons Dom and Steph and gorgeous little sister Adella, and her brother and sister in law Paul and Elaine. Dom and Steph have grown into amazing young men, both look like they could be playing for premiership teams and both have gorgeous Italian accents –god they made me feel so old.

Steph, Adella and Dom

Dom (on the right) is due to start university to be a doctor like his dad and Steph (left) to me has a real look of Xabi Alonso. Dom is a massive Liverpool fan, so I gave him a signed Liverpool shirt for him to take back to Italy (He promised me it wont end up on ebay)

Parties and exotic invitations are great, but sometimes a simple night with special people are just as important.